The Reconstruction of Moscow

ated and on winter evenings you can cross the court- yard or descend into a basement apartment only at the risk of breaking your neck. "The latrines in most of these houses are for com- mon use, and • are kept in a very filthy state. In the census forms a great many cases are noted where layers of excrement a quarter of an arshin* deep covered the floor of the latrine, rising higher than the seat; there are not a few cases where the cesspools, overflow and the contents seep into the passages and sometimes under the floors of the apartments. The tenants prefer to relieve themselves in corners of the courtyard, and children are set down near the steps. In many cases latrines and urine- gutters adjoin an old wall, as a consequence of which foul fluid seeps into the apartments and contaminates the air to such an extent that after half an hour of it the census takers 'developed nausea, became ill and dizzy.' "** This is the Moscow that is now being transformed, that is being given a new appearance corresponding to its new socialist content.

* One arshin =2H feet. , ** Moscow City Council News, No. 19, October 1902, pp. 5-^6, I. Ver- ner, "The Housing Gonditions of the Poorer People of Moscow." ~